Where my stash money goes

August 31, 2017

It was art today and I had that feeling you get when you had a deadline and you knew you had to meet it and you didn't. I needed to prepare something for Art today - I have had all week. So it was kind of typical that I ended up having to rush and do it just before I went. I think retirement is a manyana culture. Nothing is pressing anymore. I gave up deadlines. And that is not a bad thing. However it means I have done little other than art today. Oh well.

I finished the picture at class and Nigel said it looked OK but was not my best. Ah well. It was fun whilst it lasted. I will take a picture at some point.

I have new scrapping to share that was made with a new release called sunsets in paradise by Jumpstart Designs

I love the photo I took one winter evening from the chain ferry and it worked well with this collection.

I had fun yesterday with some iron on glitter vinyl and a cheap Primark T Shirt. I saw a mother of cats t shirt on line but itched to make one of my own.

It looks much better in real life

It's hanging so the design looks a bit wobbly but it is not really.

Today I am thankful for

a good artistic session

new materials to play with

the start of our weekend.

and some pictures from the web that show nature just won't be thwarted - she will overcome the odds.

August 29, 2017

Masses of washing from Nigel's mom this week plus how we get through the amount of clothes we do I have no idea. Still, as my mom would have said - it was a good drying day.

I might sideline in a personal shopper too as we had a job sourcingt hings for his mom she needed.

We did manage a short walk at Baiter and we saw a film today - American Made - rubbish - don't bother!

No new scrapping today but this is another page I made for the Shimelle class - the prompt was to tell a story of travel - either the journey to the holiday, the getting ready etc. It made me realise that I had never told the story for the lost bag. Nigel and I are experience travellers, especially to Florida, and it is true what they say - Familiarity breeds contempt - or at least over-cockiness.

We always use Alamo, know their system well and use the self check desks. It saves a mess of time and I (yes always me) am always on a hurry to leave the airport. Especially the car hire desks as they are nver air conditioned and in Florida that is an issue.

Anyhow, we made a mistake - a huge mistake and what was potentially a disastrous mistake.

We used the self check desks, went to the garage, picked our car and we were off. Old hands eh! We knew the way and everything.

We had travelled about 5 miles out of the airport when, for some unknown reason, I asked Nij if the rucksack he had used for hand-luggage was on the back seat. We both looked and no – no rucksack – and Nigel said it definitely wasn’t in the boot. We stopped to check. Nope. Such a horrible sick feeling inside. It contained all our duty free, two ipads and 2 cameras. Nigel remembered where he had left it – at the self check in terminal for the hire car. And because I had rushed him he had left it there. It had been so hot in the garage collecting the car as we had had to wait as they didn’t have our size available, we had rushed putting everything in to get out of the heat and not checked.

We both felt sick. It would have been a huge loss and for me, no cameras was a disaster. We u turned and headed back.

Sometimes life isn’t simple. The only way we would get back was to go to rental return. There were two terminals – A and B. thought B, Nigel thought A. We went to A. We had to go into rental return and explain we were NOT returning. That took precious minutes of explanation and we both knew the longer it was the less chance we had of getting the bag back. Eventually, leaving the rest of our luggage in a car we hoped would not get put back in the car pool, we ran to the terminal – me to the rental office in the garage and Nij to the rental desks in the terminal. As soon as I saw the office I knew we were in the wrong place. Different office. Tried ringing Nigel. No joy. He didn’t realise for a while he was at the wrong terminal then he spoke to a manager who was our saviour. The directions to the terminal were complex and he could see I (I had caught up with him by then) was in a state so he took Nigel the staff way to the other terminal to the Alamo desks. The man who helped at the self check was there and said yes Nigel had left a bag there but it had now gone to lost property. Th manage helping took Nigel to lost property and it was there. Praise be. However he needed ID to reclaim it. Identifying the contents was not enough. Our new friend even offered to use his ID. Nope. They ran back to the terminal where I was waiting, collected the passport for ID, ran back to terminal A and finally reclaimed our bag. We were so grateful for the help of everyone. It took a further 15 minutes to explain why we were NOT returning the car, why we were leaving through the employee exit (the only way we could get out) and get on our way again – but we did.

All told it was probably only an hour from realising we had lost it to being back on the road, but it was a horrid hour and very stressful. However, the Florida sunshine worked its magic instantly and we both calmed really quickly and enjoyed being ‘home’ in our favourite state.

August 27, 2017

The last couple of days have been glorious - unlike an English Bank Holiday weekend really.

Yesterday we had a fab time meeting up with an old friend who emigrated to Australia but was 'back home' visiting which was lovely. Then we went to the cinema to see Logan Lucky which was a good film reminiscent of a red-neck Sting really and we also had a meal out so all in all in a lovely day.

Today we toyed with the idea of the Wareham River Cruise but decided it was too sunny and we are quite careful about the sun these days. We knew all roads would lead to the beach and it would be crowded so we headed away from the beach to Salisbury. It is a lovely drive across Cranbourne Chase which we love.

We happened to stop off in the town for Reeve (good job there isn't a Reeve near by! It is the best bakery ever) and a Starbucks in a deserted town - it was impossibly quiet.

I love Salisbury with its mix of modern, medieval, Tudor and Georgian buildings.

Then we started on a Treasure Trail but a road closure meant we had to abandon it part way through - we will pick it up another time. We did see an unusual sculpture and Stonehenge though. It was just a beautiful meander around.

Barb you asked if I took the firework picture on my phone and that would be a yes - it's great for that sort of shot.

You also asked about Kingston Lacy - the beautiful old house. And I guess we would call the building a Stately Home or a manor house. It's not a castle as they are usually older and with towers, crenelations and fortifications and not a palace as that would be used by royalty at some time in the past and far grander . However it is a very imprecise naming system we have here. The tower of London for example is a castle and is crenelated and well fortified but is also still a royal palace, as is Windsor Castle! I think we just pick a name here int eh UK and go with it and ignore the rules! We are very lucky as we have literally hundreds and hundreds of such buildings int he UK ... and bear in mind the UK is very small. A lot of them, but by no means all, are now at least partly owned by an organisiation called the National Trust. We pay a membership fee to belong to the National Trust and can visit any properties and gardens for free. The others are either owned by the Royal estates or privately owned, but many families could no longer afford the taxes and upkeep on these large estates and hence why they have been wholly or partly sold to organisations like the National Trust. The National Trust also own huge swathes of coastline and countryside and make sure that is all preserved as natural heritage wonders too. You will see from today's pictures that we have towns ... like Salisbury ... where buildings of anything from 700 years old are just in amongst shopping centres etc. Some of the beautiful old Tudor building that remain are just regular shops for example. I often forget that we have such a wealth of history all around us int he UK.

Today I am thankful for

some lovely days out

a beautiful country - it is so easy to take the wealth of history for granted.

August 25, 2017

Doors still need work, we missed a river cruise we were going to do on a glorious day and I am sick to death of this saga and resigning from the issue. It's all Nigel's to sort now. I am done. We went for the big name, the 'best' not the cheapest and I wish we hadn't. End of. It works, it is secure but there are so many issues. Good luck Nigel.

The second half was much better. A visit to Barford Farm for delicious handmade ice-cream and then the beauty of Kingston Lacy in the sunshine of the summer.

It ALMOST made up for the window. Almost! Not quite. Sorry - I am usually a very positive person, not much really really gets me down like this but this has been going on for 4 months and I am done.

On to brighter things - and they were bright - we saw Poole fireworks again last night and there were two people sat in front of us at just the right place for the perfect picture.

I have new scrapping to share too. Dawn has a fabulous new collection out today at 60% off and it is lush.

August 24, 2017

I have been in a scrapping frenzy of late and lovely it has been too. I have scrapped so many paper pages and a lot of digitial too and had so much fun so it was nice to have a different creative day today and return to art. I am in process of painting a beach hut scene and it WAS going well but not so sure about it now. We will see what it is like when it is finished.

I also caught up with my bestie today and we had a nice couple of hours ina coffee shop which I enjoyed.

This is a page I made two days ago for a photography inspired challenge and I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I use an app on my phone to record places we visit with a date and time stamp as well as location but apart from using them in the book from last year's wow tour I haven't ever done anything with them. I printed off a load from July and August and made this paper page with them

August 22, 2017

It wasn't especially sunny today but heck - who needs the sun to be with them when it is this humid! Brisk brisk walk today and boy did we get hot picking up the pace a great deal. All goo though.

Kira is =going through one of her sick spells again and why she has to 'perform' on our cream bedroom carpet I have no idea. Bored with cleaning it now. It takes for ever. Could she be sick int he kitchen on the tiles floor, in the lounge, hall, stairs, dining room on the carpet that you can put bleach on and resists any stain at all. No - just the cream bedroom carpet. Ah well - we said we could do it when we joined.

Another page featuring 2 photos today for Shimelle's new class. Again very different from my usual style.

I printed all the elements off and the top picture is a Disney picture not my own. I even went to the trouble of handcutting the lettering for the title.

I cannot believe I have never done a true Fantasmic page before.

It looks almost digital but it is not. Honest. The papers are very old Basic Grey and everything else was from digital kits printed off - in some cases recoloured.

Today I am thankful for

Kira just being sick rather than ill. No-one knows what causes it and it just seems to go in phases

a long brisk walk

a new commission. Love that I am getting those for my frames and stuff

August 21, 2017

I always say I am a digital scrapper and a paper scrapper in equal measures, but often I seem to digi scrap for convenience. This weekend has been the exception. I have enjoyed playing along at a cyber crop and it has gotten my mojo going and I have made a heap of pages - eight paper pages in two days to be precise and I like them. I truly do - and it has felt lovely to be covered in glue and ink and to be cuttinga nd sticking. Such fun.

I have also made a paper page today for the next prompt in the Shimelle class - which I am loving.

Shimelle often uses 4" x 6" pictures which I don't often do, but this page was so simple to complete I can see me using it again.

I scrapped Animal Kingdom photos of an elephant from the safari. I do love elephants. I also made it as part of the challenges I have been loving on ATDML

The embellishments were all printed onto card and cut out and the title was a seriously old Hot off the Press book of alpha tiles. I had forgotten those and it just worked for this page.

And despite the scrapping we also fitted in a nice long walk today. My ankle is swollen now but it is getting stronger.

August 19, 2017

Friday is always 'date day' where we try and do something special. It might be something special at home - we love being at home - or it might be out. Yesterday it was out.

We met one of my oldest friends for coffee and a catch up before she heads back out as a missionary. Then, on the spur of the moment, we decided to go to the cinema to see The Dark Tower which was OK ... not great but not a total waste of time. Then, as we were there, we went to Pizza Hut for some dinner. All in all a lovely day.

Today I have been scrapping as there is a cyber crop on at ATDML and I have had such fun making pages which I will share in due course.

However I do want to share digital news - Dawn has a new collection out called Explore. These are the elements

This is what I made with it

I also want to share my second page made for the Shimelle Magical Scrapbook class - it was another challenge - a double page and I don't really do double pages.

There were a lot of ladies there and I had a stall alongside many others. It was nice to meet everyone, chat, buy some lush goodies and enjoy the cake! And hopefully Michelle raised a lot of money for the charity. My stall looked OK and I sold well today, so win win all round.

Yesterday I did the first page for the new Magical Scrapbook class Shimelle is running #magicalscrapbook

It took me well out of my comfort zone as it was about using a big picture (I am fine with that) and also a whole mess of stickers in the white space area. THAT was well out of my comfort zone - even Shimelle herself recognised I stretched myself there. I was, however, pleased with the page and can't believe I hadn't scrapped the photo for the 2015 album before (I think I might have scrapped it digitally but no a paper version)

I am looking forward to seeing how this class progresses. Heck it is Shimelle and Disney - what's not to like!

Don't forget the Pickle Barrel is open at the moment too - great 6 pack bargains to be found so go over and check them out.

The photos are from the Falkirk Wheel which we visited because Nigel had seen it on TV and was keen to see this feat of engineering. I was not! I was prepared to go because he wanted to but was not keen. It was terrific. An amazing feat of engineering and a beautiful trip with a lovely canal ride. Well worth visiting.

All About Me

I am Scrapdolly - frequently answering to just Dolly. I live with my soulmate Nigel, two cats and a Fiki monster and I love to scrap. Scrapping is my creative outlet, my daily therapy, my sanity restorer and where I meet my friends. Come share it with me.